Title: Battles of the Heart
Anime: Code Lyoko
Author: Kat-chan8806
A/N: Story is written in first person, Ulrich's point-of-view
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This is dedicated to a new-found friend of mine, Limited Heart. I know that she likes the Yumi/Ulrich pairing, so I couldn't resist writing this for her. Limited Heart, this's for you. Thanks for being my inspiration.
Now it's story time! Yay!
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Yumi and I have always been friends. We never said it, but there was a kind of concealed love between us. I guess we were both afraid of what would happen if we fell in love. We tried to be strong and live independently, without anyone by our sides. But now, I was thinking of breaking the unspoken agreement between us: we could not fall in love.
I now found myself standing outside her house. I didn't know why i was even there; I figured that she would rather be with William than me. I could hear the energetic voice of Yumi's little brother, Hiroki, taunting her: "Yumi's in love, Yumi's in love!" Although I could not hear any other words spoken aside from Hiroki's on-going chants, even this was silenced by the sharp sound of a bowl being slammed roughly on a surface. The silence lingered until I could hear a door bang closed and the quiet voices of Yumi's family talking amongst themselves. I thought that maybe I should come back at another time, but I quickly realized that this could be my chance: Yumi was upset, so I could cheer her up. I would be the one who was there for her when she needed someone. It would be me, not William. And so, with this in mind, I walked up to the door and knocked confidently on the door. Yumi's father answered the door. He was beyond puzzled.
I asked, as politely as i could, to speak with Yumi. Her father stared at me for a moment, as though trying to decide whether now would be a good time for me to see his daughter. After a few moments, however, he opened the door wider and beckoned me inside. "But be careful," he warned, "Yumi isn't in the best mood right now." But his Japanese accent made the sentence sound more like a proverb than a warning. I nodded solemnly and went to Yumi's door.
I could hear the angry sobs from where I stood. Yumi, crying? There was more to this than just anger at her brother's antics. Something must have been dreadfully wrong. If only I had known then what I know now. Maybe things would have worked out differently. As it is, well... I'll tell more about that later. In any event, I cautiously knocked on the door to Yumi's room. When she asked who was at the door, I told her it was me and I wanted to help. I could hear her footsteps on the floor briefly before the door creaked open. "Ulrich, what are you doing here?" It was the only question I didn't have an answer for.
She had invited me inside her room. We sat and talked. I was careful not to flat-out ask her what was wrong. I didn't need to mess this up. Then, after some time, I made my first mistake: I spoke too soon. I thought she had calmed down, I really did. But I was wrong, and it cost me. In a moment of innocent chatter, I let my guard down and the words slipped from my lips before I could stop them: "So, what were you crying about earlier?" From the look on her face, I wished I had never opened my mouth.
She began to cry. I didn't know what to do. Yumi was always such a strong girl, I had never imagined seeing her cry. Through her hands, she tried to tell me what awful event had caused her suffering, but her voice was muffled, and the only word I heard clearly was 'William.' I could have died, right then and there. Then again, if William was the one who had hurt her, I could have killed him, just as easily. William was my only competition, and I hated that he could have hurt the very girl we were fighting over.
But I had misjudged the situation. Yumi wasn't hurt by him. Or even by me. In fact, she was hurt by both of us. As she explained what was wrong, I started to think that killing myself wasn't such a bad idea after all, except, if I died then I could never apologize to Yumi for what William and I were doing to her. We were ripping out her heart, and neither of us had even realized it. Through our fighting over Yumi, we were, in fact, only hurting her. The very person we both wanted to protect. I guess love really can blind people, because I knew that I couldn't see anything except my own pride, and, of course, Yumi. She was always on my mind. Always.
After Yumi explained that she was beginning to hate the constant competition between William and me, I made a decision: I had to end this constant battle between William and myself. I had to fight him one last time. Since Yumi couldn't decide between us, we would have to help her out a bit.
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A/N: This is DEFINITELY not finished, but I just wanted to post the beginnings of this story. If you read this, guys, then please review. I want to know what you think! I'll keep this going for Limited. I'll update soon, promise!